(The Myth of "Perfect Pitch"..... and How to Get "It," by Kirk Whipple)

II. An Inconclusive and Misleading TestThere have been "scientific" studies of individuals "who exhibit
perfect pitch." The problem that I find with these studies and conclusions is
twofold. First, these studies seem to be conducted by technicians who do not necessarily
have a thorough understanding of music or how we function in real music making. Second,
there is no evidence of a control group of test subjects who can be proven not to
exhibit the capacity for "perfect pitch." Individuals in such a control group
may each say that they "do not have perfect pitch" or "cannot carry a
tune." As a successful teacher of willing "tone deaf" pupils, however, I
offer that perhaps the control groups collective tune would change with their
willingness to learn certain listening skills (which I will detail later) from a patient
teacher.

I saw a televised news report where a "gifted individual" identified several
electronically produced tones in a sequence. The person conducting the experiment
confirmed that the test subject correctly identified the letter name of each tone. Throughout this report the viewer was led to believe
that "perfect pitch" is a mysterious talent only bestowed upon a very narrow
percentage of the "gifted" community. There are at least four problems with this
demonstration.

Problem one: As there was no mention in this report of any verifiable acoustic
isolation of the test subject, the demonstration is reduced to a mere parlor trick; anyone
with well developed relative pitch could easily
identify a series of pitches by hearing only one established reference tone before the
experiment.

Problem two: The simple letter identification of a given tone (or even several) does
not constitute "perfect pitch." Between every precise frequency represented by
the consecutive tones of "in tune" piano strings are an infinite range of
discreet pitches. Which "A" would a test subject have to identify, then? The
"A" vibrating at 439 cycles per second?
440? 441? At which increasingly higher frequency
would one with "perfect pitch" stop calling the note an "A" and start
calling it an "A sharp?" Or, is it a "B flat," and what is the
difference?

Problem three: Many piano tuners have a special ability to hone in on A-440 as it is a common reference tone of choice for piano
tuning. These tuners can make minute discriminations between this and, lets say,
"A-440.5." This distinction might even be as subtle as 0.1 cycles per second or
less. Even so, do we say "close enough?" I dont think so.

Problem four: It probably did not occur to the scientists conducting the experiment,
the test subject or the interviewer, but there was not even a suggestion that
"perfect pitch" might be a widely learnable ability.

Given the above problems, does this mean that the test subject of the report was not
musically gifted? Probably not. Does this mean that what is commonly referred to as
"perfect pitch" is unattainable? Absolutely not. I will later offer evidence of
how anyone with at least average hearing, time and interest may acquire this mysterious
and elusive skill.